Why is Identifying the Tin Side Important?

During the formation of float glass, the high-temperature glass ribbon floats on the surface of molten tin, causing the lower surface of the glass to absorb a certain amount of tin. The tin side and non-tin side of the glass exhibit significant differences in various properties. For this reason:

  • Coating manufacturers apply coatings to the non-tin side to ensure better adhesion of the coating film;

  • During glass heat bending and tempering, the tin side should be on the convex surface—otherwise, iridescence is likely to occur;

  • When producing fused glass, if the tin side is placed incorrectly, the resulting fused glass will have poor transparency;

  • In screen printing, the position of the tin side must be identified during enamel processing to facilitate further manufacturing steps.

By this point, it should be clear that efficient and accurate identification of the glass tin side holds great significance both in the production process of float glass and its subsequent deep-processing stages.

How to identify the tin side of float glass？

We can identify the tin side based on the different optical properties between the tin side and the non-tin side of float glass. Specifically, accurate identification of the tin side can be achieved by measuring the light transmitted through the tin side or reflected by it. Currently, there are many such tin side detectors available on the market, and two of them are introduced here.

1.  Aoptek TS580 Tin Side Detector: 

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This instrument adopts a long-life light source and is powered by a lithium battery, resulting in low operation and maintenance costs. It uses patented tin side identification technology, enabling intuitive and clear tin side recognition. With a compact and portable design, it is widely used for tin side identification in the glass deep-processing industry. It supports three identification methods: transmission viewing method, edge viewing method, and reflection viewing method, easy to operate and observe.

2.  Aoptek TS2600 Online Automatic Tin Side Detection System: 

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It is applied to glass deep-processing production lines such as laminating, tempering, coating, screen printing, and enamel coating. It can quickly and effectively identify the position of the tin-adhered side of float glass, provide indication and alarm signals, and is equipped with an external expansion signal interface. It can interact with the production line to transmit tin side identification data of the glass.